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Sunday, 3 April 2016

The American Molossus

Because what the world needs right now is a dog that is bigger, wrinklier and more fearless than the current Neapolitan Mastiff!

Let's make a molossus a colossus!

Yep, let's take something that is already right-royally fucked up and make it more fucked-up!

Although as you can see from the second picture above (an artist's rendering apparently) this breed's creator will be sticking with a small penis, presumably in homage to his own.

It's the idea of an AKC Neapolitan Breeder, Marcus Curtis, who specialises in what he calls Old World Mastinos - essentially the most exaggerated Neapolitan Mastiffs you are ever likely to see. He ships them all over the world to people who don't give a rat's ass about inflicting suffering on their dogs. Here's one fine example he shipped to New Zealand.

And now he wants to take it further.

Here's the pitch:

The American Molossus is a super sized Neapolitan Mastiff and the true version of the real Molossus of antiquity. Get ready to own both the greatest dog and guardian but to own a true throwback relic from the ancient past. A beast, a gargoyle an American Molossus.

Here's their "creator", brimming with self-importance, only vaguely cognisant with history and with clearly not the slightest care about what it would be like to be a dog like this, talking about how he's so excited about his new breed that he can barely sleep.

If you suffer from hypertension, it might be better to not watch. What got me, too, is that it's clear he's had a lot of flak from the purebred community about crossbreeding. Hopefully one or two also mentioned that intentionally breeding a dog to look like this is cruelty - although if the criticism came from Neapolitan Mastiff breeders, maybe not.

40 comments:

2) God awful movement as the dog appeared to struggle with its own bulk.

3) overheating .... short run, tongue hanging out and not looking comfortable

4) the basis that this has been breed on the images captured in carvings from the old world...... did I miss something or were they depicting some big dogs that had tight skin and clean mouths..... Just saying.

5) the breeder being SOOOOOOOO excited about this new breed and the fact he has come in for criticism from other breeders for ruining other breeds (may be he should take some advice). HOW DELUDED WAS HE????

6) if any of my dogs moved like this I would take them to the vets and query if they were OK

Ive never heard so much rubbish spouted from a dog breeder in my entire life. He obviously has some sort of mental problem , cant sleep,shifty eyes and a desire to create an animal thats not only useless to society but a sad wreck that shouldnt even be thought about in his worst nightmare ...

Just playing devils advocate; Don't purebred dogs have plenty of health problems as it is? Hip displasia? Heart problems? Eye problems? Cancer etc? So whats wrong with crossing the Neo and making a new breed? Diversity in the gentic makeup insure a healthy dog. Isnt that why they say mutts are the healthiest dogs? And besides, Arent many modern breeds a cross of other breeds? The leonberger is a mix of Newfoundland, St Bernard and Mastiff. The Dogo Argentino is a cross between Presa Canario, mastiff, Great Pyrenees and Great Dane. This guy is adding and mixing genetic lines from assumingly the neo and the mastiff for increased size. In doing so, with the added genetic diversity, you increase the odds of a healthier dog. Lastly, what he's doing has been done before. He wont be the first and definitely not the last. ......Paul Daluz

Just as not all breeds are equally healthy and diverse genetically, not all crosses are equally healthy. Diverse genetics does not guarantee a healthy dog either. Breeding one kind of turd to another turd still yields a turd.

Yah there is nothing wrong with creating a new breed as such or cross breeding if you get abetter dog at the end of it. This is just creating a bigger version with even more unhealthy exaggerations than the original "turd".

What the man has failed to computate is that the breed(?) that he refers to died out because of the enormous exaggeration and stress put onto their systems to just survive. That stress we can clearly see in the video of that poor dog. Tragic that a man who appears to be normal is seemingly struggling with what normal actually means.

Jemima, I know!! But anything that is bred to such exaggeration by man will die out, that is what I meant. Elephants are huge but nature has taken this into account. Mine was an "open" remark hence question mark. G

I remember reading The Island of Dr Moreau as a child and being horrified by the pain being inflicted by vivisection on animals by a human. Wikipedia describes it thus "He (Dr Moreau) explains that while he is getting closer to perfection, his subjects have a habit of reverting to their animal form and behaviour. Moreau regards the pain he inflicts as insignificant and an unavoidable side effect in the name of his scientific experiments.

They may not use knives any longer, but breeders, judges, freak fans and the commentators to this vid on YouTube are just as guilty as the fictional Dr Moreau.

This man isn't breeding a dog, he's constructing a freak to put on show for his own merits, fame and notoriety, and screw the animal's potential suffering, ribbons, cups and awards are for humans not dogs. There are words to describe him and his encouragers, but not any fit for publication.

I think the term Molosser or Molossus should be expunged from our lexicon of dog words. It comes from a total misunderstanding of ancient texts, which describe entirely different dogs, and it assumes that all the big, broad-headed dogs are related. They aren't.

The same can be said of sighthounds, but sighthounds all have the same original function. The Neo mastiff, the English mastiff, and the Dogue were all derived from big game hunting dogs, while something like a Rottweiler or St. Bernard is derived from the dogs of humble farmers in the Alps. The bulldogs were used to control and bait bulls, and one name for them is "butcher's dog." One name for the Rottweiler is "Metzgerhund," but that's from an entirely different context. Rottweilers were never bull-baiters. They were used more like the Swiss mountain dogs which are their cousins.

This gets even worse when we see that the Tibetan LGD is called a Tibetan mastiff, but it's not a mastiff like was found in England or France.

The genetic data shows that these dogs aren't related at all, and they aren't related by function at all. So why do we hold onto to nineteenth century cynological speculations?

The true Neopolitan in years past ran for miles beside Warrior and horse in battle. This breed now can barely make it around the Show Ring. It's so damned sad and inhumane and yes, cruel to do this to a breed. The man should be stopped.

It's all going to come down to so many of these animals suffering over time and people who take the time to do tests on these dogs finally waking up to reality but after so much suffering to finally realize...the last of these poor animals will have to be put to sleep to finally end the suffering...and their mad scientist behind bars for a looooonnnng time...this is so sad...:-(

It's all going to come down to so many of these animals suffering over time and people who take the time to do tests on these dogs finally waking up to reality but after so much suffering to finally realize...the last of these poor animals will have to be put to sleep to finally end the suffering...and their mad scientist behind bars for a looooonnnng time...this is so sad...:-(

Delusional hype. The whole thing from the dogs names to the suits he wears.

As far from a functioning athletic mastiff as it's almost humanly possible to go.

The pinnacle of uselessness and futility. He might as well market Pekingese as gladiator dogs.

These dogs are more likely to savage their own flews than see off any intruder. I suppose being show dogs and somewhat short on drive they aren't even capable of doing that. After all little old ladies have to be able to fiddle about with their genitals and stick their fingers up their mouths.

Good working mastiff breeds are available but they certainly will never be these sad caricatures of a dog. In fact the pedigree show Neopolitan as a whole is right out of contention even as material to produce a generic banddog capable of doing its job at a wreckers yard.

dogs that cannot go faster than a lumbering shuffle, cannot see because their eyelids are at their cheeks, cannot breathe, and cannot bite because they will fang themselves, is in no way "acceptable in ancient times" or any times. there are dogs that are identical to what was "acceptable in ancient times" and they are still working "perfectly functionally" in 2016

I agree with whatamilookingat. Look at the ancient hounds such as the saluki, afghan hound somewhat, since i wouldnt think in the past they had as much fur...but you never know. The basenjiis another still somewhat capable of doing a job, although most the jobs for the breeds in this day and age would of changed. The looks are still similar to what they where in the past.Huskies malamutes are also ancient breeds.

The shar pei is an ancient breed that modern times has ruined, they never used too look like they do now. If only he was recreating the old shar pei's now that would be a good idea. This...well they'll be far far worse off than the modern day shar pei's, at least they have a somewhat moderate life span.

Anonymous5 April 2016 at 01:31 The traditional Shar Pei has never gone extinct, there are still people breeding them unchanged and always have been. Google "bonemouth shar pei". They are absolutely beautiful animals, far and away better than the western "meatmouth"

1) This would be laughable, if not for the harm it does to dogs. Marcus Curtis thinks he's recreating the war dogs of old, when he's really creating a mess that bears very little resemblance to the strong, fit, large (but not giant) dogs of ancient times. He should be putting all that passion into understanding canid biology and history, instead of this shameful project.

2) Purebred afficianados are fools for criticizing Curtis' dog-crossing practices. That's actually the one thing he's doing almost right: allowing dog populations to mix. The problem is that he's doing it to create freaks, instead of healthy, outcrossed animals.

Even if you could recreate war dogs of old, what's the use? From what I've read, the conquistadors found large vicious dogs very useful for terrifying indigenous people, and later, for getting compliance from slaves. Why would anyone want to bring back these horrid, immoral bits of history?

see, eg., https://elvalleinformation.wordpress.com/spanish-war-dogs/

The use of dogs as weapons is an invitation to trouble . . . though the dogs discussed in this post are probably too crippled to be much of a threat to anything except the owner's allowance for veterinary expenses.

Creating a monster of a 'new breed' to do a specific job you can't find in other breeds is one thing. Still messed up, and mostly unecessary, but at least it is for a function, so presumably function would be important in those creating it.This guy, though, seems overwhelmingly obsessed simply with appearance. I'll eat the contents of my ashtray if this dog has any guarding abilities, or would stand any chance of catching a wrong doer that crossed him. If you want a protection dog, get a decent working line dobe or something and train it to do just that. Why create a whole new breed to do a job other breeds already do fine, and with far less exaggerated and problematic construction? He must have both money to burn, and a big empty space where his brain should be.

Though I am quietly hopeful most people would see through this and not want a dog like this. I can't imagine a huge, drooling, short lived, bull of a dog with skin that needs cleaning out, that leaves slobber strings all over the house, probably smells bad, and likely chews its own lips off when trying to eat let alone if it ever caught hold of a person it was 'protecting' you against will be particularly coveted. Even the neo isn't a common breed, so an even more extreme version probably wouldn't be either.

The only people I can see remotely wanting a creature like this are either wannabe gangster kids who think a huge slobbering mastiff type dog is 'cool' (regardless as to whether it can actually move, or do anything other than stand there trying not to collapse) or those select people who are drawn to the most freakish looking animals they can find, the more deformed the better, the same people who buy exotic bullies. And given the price of this dog will probably be up in the high hundreds to thousands, there aint much of a market as I can see.

I certainly can't see it ever becoming a 'breed' or taking off as something people actually want in large numbers.I'd bet money he'll do this for a few years, realise he can't sell the pups because people don't want a huge creaky non functional slobber machine that will cost them tons in vets bills, and give up.

Over the years of talking to your 'average' dog owner (ie, not show/working folk, or dog fanatics, but your run of the mill family down the road who just want a family dog) I have found that what *most* people want is a medium sized or small dog that is fairly low maintenance (ie, not requiring tons of coat care, wrinkle cleaning, special diets, huge amounts of exercise or constant attention) that is relatively clean (ie, won't shed or slobber all over everything) that is good with people and other dogs, that is easy to train the basics, that won't run off at any opportunity to kill cats or wildlife, and that lives a decent lifespan without too much drama or cost.

This dog doesn't look like it would tick any of those boxes, ergo, Im quietly confident it will be a whim that will fizz out when he realises how difficult and expensive his dream is, and how little anyone else gets behind it.

Actually I think most working dog owners want the same only exception they would include high drive/prey drive and in the case of a mastiff/guardian breed, substance.

I would think the Neapolitan Mastiff has been around long enough as a train wreck for most people to be wary already. Even in the murky fringes of society where this type was often used as a popular cross they've managed to lose any street credibility.

These are now almost exclusively show mutts, one of the worst. They cant often breed naturally, in fact they can hardly get them to live long enough to finish in the show ring. The hype from breeders like this is just showmanship, disneyfied pretensions. They aren't interested in the real deal, not even in looks.

A 180 lbs ball of tight solid athletic muscle that meant business would make Curtis crap in his Italian pleated woollen twill.

This guy, is pretty much laughed at by the Mastino community world-wide, unless of course he's bought a dog from one of them, self absorbed and yet another narcissist to the emph degree, lacking in complete knowledge not just of history but even the own bloodline he works with. Hit and miss, he breeds, so every now and then has a ok dog but which of course is promoted as the biggest and greatest of all time, nothing more then a sales man, copying another guy Chad Mayo, who was obviously not given enough attention as a child, and trying to compensate with their new concept breeds for attention, so yes, line up their are taking deposits.

so he wants to create a dog that looks like a little caricature statue, and not a real dog? well... good luck to the jackass. Further, please dont ever post any swill that those fucksticks at "bully badass tv" post. theyre just wrong. dont give them views.

OMG I don't know much about them but don't the pupies look absolutely gorgeous compared to an English bulldog, though!? Cutness on four sturdy feet. Peeing all over the carpet is not going to go down well but what fun I wouldn't mind spending an afternoon with that lot of wiggly naughty puppy.

Partially unrelated - i can't explain, as the screenshot will do so itself. http://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u636/Milla_Reeve/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpswlra3z9n.jpeg Do you think that's really a 'botched eye surgery', or just poor breeding?

The world does not need more or new breeds, it needs better dogs in the breeds that already exist. And why is it with each new generation of breeders they think they can change a standard and make a breed improve? Leave the standards alone and be brave enough to breed to it as it is.

I own a old world neo from Marcus and have met him in person. His dogs are amazing and his breeding of the neo superb. If someone can breed a cockapoo or a labradoodle which are fake breeds. Why can't an extinct breed be brought back ? Kudos Marcus and old world mastinos

So I own an old world mastino and have personally met Marcus. He has done a fantastic job with this breed creating healthy big dogs - not everyone likes a little dog - if breeders can create dogs that never existed cockapoos, labradoodles etc .. Why can't a great breeder bring back an extinct one ? Kudos to you Marcus and OWM.. There's plenty of big dog lovers that appreciate your passion.

I know Marcus Curtis and I've been dealing with him for sometime. He is not delusional. He his a reputable breeder world wide and he has a great deal to be proud of. He had produced many of the most sought after Neapolitan Mastiffs in the world. Beautiful animals. He is educated and has worked very hard to earn his name in the breeders community. Your comments above don't only show your ignorance but your total lack of respect.

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About Me

I grew up with pedigree dogs - English Setters, Great Danes, Labradors and, most recently, Flatcoated Retrievers. Today, I share my home with an assortment of dogs, purebred and mutts. In 2008, I directed Pedigree Dogs Exposed, a BBC documentary which uncovered the extent of health and welfare problems in pedigree dogs. The film has now been shown in more than 20 countries. Campaigning for improved purebred dog health is now a great passion - one fuelled by the fear that those who currently view themselves as the guardians of pedigree dogs are, often unwittingly, the agents of their demise.
My mission, then, is to continue to highlight where things have gone wrong and to encourage breeders and Kennel Clubs to embrace reform - particularly when it comes to harmful phenotypes and inbreeding.